GOOD KING DAGOBERT AND HIS SUCCESSORS

B

Y the murder and robbery of his young kinsmen,
Clotaire II. Became master of all three kingdoms, and
therefore, like his namesake, sole king of France. He
is noted in history not only for his cruelty t
Brunhilda, but also because he was forced to make a new
law, whereby the nobles were henceforthallowed to leave
their lands and titles to their children. Before that,
when a nobleman had died, his lands had always been
given back to the king. At this time, also, there was
chosen in each of te three kingdoms a chief officer,
called Mayor of the Palace, to govern under the king.

While Clotaire was noted for his hardness of heart, his
son Dag'obert is so famous for his good nature and
jollity that no one in France ever mentions him except
as "the good king Dagobert." At his father's death
(628), he too found himself sole king of France, and
during his reign he received, besides, tribute from
many tribes in Germany. He made many wise laws,
listened tot he complaints of the poor as patiently as
to those of the rich, and dealt out justice to all
alike.

[61] Many of Dagobert's wise deeds are said to have been due
to the good advice given by his treasurer (Eloi), a man
of such fine principles that he was called "saint" even
during his lifetime. This treasurer was also a very
clever goldsmith, and made for the king a golden
throne, and a crown and scepter, long carefully
preserved in the treasury of the Church of St. Denis,
near Paris.

This church—a wonder of architecture—stands in the
very spot where St. Denis is said to have been buried.
The story runs that a poor little chapel, built over
the saint's grave, had fallen into ruins and was quite
forsaken. One day while pursuing a deer, Dagobert saw
it plunge into a thicket, and soon found that it had
taken refuge in this tumble-down place. The
tender-hearted king not only spared the poor deer's
life, but vowed to build a church and abbey there. For
this reason he is considered the founder of the abbey
of St. Denis, although very little of the building he
erected there still exists.

[62] The church finished, we are told that Dagobert laid
upon the altar a quaint banner of crimson and gold, cut
in the shape of a flame, which is known as the
"Or'iflamme." This was the sacred royal banner of
France. For centuries no French king ever went to war
without first visiting the church of St. Denis, where
the abbot gave him this standard, which was kept on the
altar in times of peace. The Oriflamme was always
carried before the king in battle, and it waved from
his tent camp, while the royal war cry of "Montjoie et
St. Denis" (moN-zhwä' ā săN dē-nee')was heard in every fray where it was
carried.

Dagobert felt such an interest in the church he had
founded, that he begged to be buried in it. His tomb in
the Church of St. Denis—which was several times
reconstructed in later centuries—can still be seen,
with quaint sculptures all around it, showing how
saints and demons are said to have fought for the
king's soul, which we are happy to say, was finally
carried off in triumph to heaven. From the time of
Dagobert's burial in this church (638) until the end of
the eighteenth century, French monarchs were always
laid to rest in this edifice, which contains so many
beautiful and interesting tombs that thousands of
strangers—as well as countless patriotic Frenchmen—go
to visit it every year.

Dagobert is considered the best and wisest of all the
Merovingian kings, and his memory is still kept green
in France by an old nursery rhyme, which is familiar to
children there as the Mother Goose ditties are to you.
As most of his successors were weak, idle, and stupid,
they are known as the Sluggard, or Do-nothing, Kings.
They ate, drank, and were merry; rode about in royal
style,
[63] lolling lazily in great wagons drawn by slow-pacing
oxen; and troubled themselves about nothing in the
world save their own pleasure. As a rule they died very
young, the result of too much eating and drinking, and
not enough exercise; but none of them were ever missed.

These slothful kings were mere figureheads. The real
power in the kingdom had fallen into the hands of their
principal officers, the mayors of the palace, who ruled
Neustria, Austrasia, and Burgundy about as they
pleased. But as these mayors of the palace were often
jealous of one another, and anxious to govern all
France alone, their rivalry led to many bitter quarrels
and even to open warfare.

Finally a famous Austrasian mayor of the palace, named
Pepin (of Héristal), defeated the Neustrians in a
great battle (Testry 687), and thus became sole master
of all northern France. It suited him, however, to keep
puppet-kings on the throne, whom he crowned or deposed
just as his fancy prompted.

For many years after this, mayors of the palace made
and unmade kings, getting rid of those who were
inconvenient by means of poison or of the dagger, or by
cutting off their long hair and shutting them up in
monasteries.

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